Chapter 3: Part 10

'It's been a while since I've really worked out,'Sayaka thought as she finished dressing herself up for exercise. Sayaka kept things fairly simple for this. A pink tank top, black yoga pants, and a pair of white sneakers. Nothing flashy, but then again, exercise isn't supposed to be flashy. Still, a quick look in the mirror, the pop idol couldn't help but wink at herself.

'I still got it. Nice legs, nice hips, and my stomach is still slim. All things considered, I've managed to keep all that food down. Still, can't get lazy about it.'

Fully prepared, Sayaka stepped out of her room and made her way to the gymnasium. Even before she entered the gym, she could hear the sounds of an electronic voice screaming instructions.

"POWER ON THROUGH! JUST TWO MORE REPS! NINE…AND TEN!"

Sayaka poked her head inside to see Chihiro just finishing up a set of curls with a 15-pound dumbbell. Chihiro would let the dumbbell fall to the floor as he began to pant.

"Great job," the electronic voice spoke up. "Give yourself two minutes to breathe."

Chihiro picked up a water bottle by his foot and took a sip of it before pressing the cold bottle against his forehead. That became the perfect opportunity for Sayaka to step in.

"You got started without me," Sayaka said as she approached the short boy.

Chihiro looked up to face her. "Oh. Hello, Sayaka. Sorry if I got a head start. It's just with my new watch, it really forces me to keep on schedule."

"Your watch?" Sayaka leaned over to check out Chihiro's wrist, noticing that said watch had a plastic shell in the shape of Nekomaru's face. "Oh right! You did mention that Nekomaru watch before."

"Yeah," Chihiro said. "So, sorry if I got ahead of my-"

"ALRIGHT!" the watch shouted out. "IT'S TIME TO WORK ON THE OTHER ARM! GET THAT BLOOD PUMPING!"

Chihiro sighed and shrugged. "Sorry. Got to get back to it." Chihiro turned back around, picked up the dumbbell, and began doing curls once again.

"I'll just go ahead and get started on my stretches then," Sayaka stepped away from Chihiro, and stood in the middle of a matt. However, before Sayaka could start, there was something she felt she had to get off her chest. "Hey, Chihiro? I know that things have been crazy lately with Keebo waking up and Celeste's group redecorating…but I do want you to know that…I have been looking for Nekomaru and Kaito's real killer."

Chihiro stopped in the middle of his reps and looked back at Sayaka. "You…have?"

Sayaka nodded. "I mean, I had some troubles lately, but we have to keep investigating, right?"

Chihiro nodded, attempting to return to his curls, but a thought crossed his mind. 'Sayaka's been looking for who killed Kaito and Nekomaru…and I've only been focusing on working out…'

"Sayaka," Chihiro spoke up, "I didn't mean to make you do all the investigating." Chihiro turned back around to face her again, "I can investigate with-"

Chihiro went silent as he noticed how Sayaka immediately got to stretching. The pop idol was stood on one leg as she managed to raise her other leg straight up into the air above her head. Chihiro's face turned beat red and he immediately looked away, covering his eyes. "S-sorry!"

Sayaka couldn't help but chuckle at Chihiro's embarrassment. She put her foot back down and spoke. "Sorry about that, Chihiro. Didn't mean to embarrass you like that. And don't worry about it. We all got a lot on our plate to handle."

"Y-yeah," Chihiro said as he dropped his hands down from his face. "I'm just going to get back to my curls…please warn me when you stretch like that, ok?"

'God, you're so innocent it's cute.'Sayaka nearly snorted with laughter. "Ok, I will. I'm going just use to treadmill after this anyway."

Chihiro picked the dumbbell back up and returned to his curls. This time, Chihiro refused to turn around. He understood that Sayaka was simply stretching, and there shouldn't be anything sensual to it. But watching a pretty girl like Sayaka bending over and letting out soft groans would be far too much for the programmer.

'I shouldn't even be thinking about it!'Chihiro thought to himself. 'If I do then it will just get…QUICK, CHANGE THE SUBJECT!'

"So, uh," beads of sweat shot off from the sides of Chihiro's head, "how has the investigation been going?"

Sayaka had been doing some shoulder stretches when Chihiro asked his question. "Well…not great in terms of finding concrete proof on anyone. I more so just confirmed who didn't do it. Like, I figured Celeste would've done it because she's…you know…"

"Celeste," Chihiro said as he finished his curls.

"Right, but Kirumi mentioned that Celeste never got a chance to be away from her group long enough to pick the lock and set up that trap. Plus, she'd never want to get her own hands dirty like that."

"So," Chihiro took a drink of his water, "who else do you think could've done it?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe Miu?" Sayaka said as she finally finished her stretches. She then stepped onto the treadmill. "I mean, she's definitely smart enough to build a trap like that, and then I remembered that Nagito accidently tripped and broke the security table…and we did learn he can use his bad luck to his advantage."

Chihiro listened to Sayaka start up the treadmill. Taking that as a signal for him to look again, he glanced over at Sayaka. "But…that's only a theory, right?"

"Yeah," Sayaka said solemnly as began to jog. "I've really been struggling with the finding evidence part of investigating…I'm sorry."

Chihiro stood up from the bench and locked eyes with Sayaka. "Don't be sorry, Sayaka." It was his turn to start motivating others. "Look, I'm not much of an investigator either. I've only been in one more class trial than you have…but thinking back on everyone's stories, their deaths and how their murders were solved, it just kind of proves that there isn't an unsolvable crime. You…you just got to find that one last clue for this. That one piece that makes everything else make sense."

Sayaka couldn't help but feel touched by Chihiro's words. She was just about to thank the boy before Chihiro's watch sounded off.

"ALRIGHT! NEXT EXERCISE! THREE SETS OF FIFTEEN SITUPS!"

"Oh," Chihiro gasped. "Back to it."

Chihiro laid himself down on the training mat. "Oh, Sayaka. I hate to interrupt what you're doing, but could you hold my feet down for this?"

"Sure, no problem at all," Sayaka pressed pause on the treadmill and made her way over to Chihiro. She then knelt down and placed her hands on Chihiro's feet. "OK, go ahead."

"Alright," Chihiro took a deep breath and slowly lift himself up. "One-"

Chihiro paused as he noticed how close to Sayaka's face he was. Sayaka actually even leaned in closer as he rose up to face her. The fact she was also using her classic beautiful smile didn't help his embarrassment as Chihiro immediately fell back down and covered his blushing face.

Sayaka giggled. "Sorry about that, Chihiro. I just couldn't help myself that time. You're really cute when you're embarrassed."

Chihiro removed his hands from his face, revealing an angry pouting expression. "Please stop teasing me."

"OK, ok, I will," Sayaka leaned back and grabbed Chihiro's feet again. "One more time. One, two, three, go!"

Following her training session with Chihiro, Sayaka took a quick break to shower and got dressed in her usual school uniform before making her up to the second-floor art room. Knowing that no artist likes to be startled while they're working, Sayaka was careful to open the door without making a creaking noise and slipping inside. Despite Sayaka's efforts, Ryoma noticed her enter immediately as he was seat just opposite from the door. Thankfully, Ryoma didn't mind her intrusion and, with a nod of his head, beckoned her to sit next to him. When she did, she sat right next to Ryoma to observe his artwork. Instead of another picture of a cat or kittens, it was a small island with only a single palm tree on it while stranded in the ocean.

"No cats today, Ryoma?" Sayaka asked.

"I can't get better if I only draw one thing," Ryoma said stoically.

"Oh…Yeah, that does make sense, doesn't it?"

Ryoma nodded as he continued to sketch out his picture while Sayaka sat off to the side in silence. However, the room was a bit too silent for Sayaka's liking at that particular time. Being alone the previous day was enough for her. So, as rude as it was to interrupt an artist's train of thought, Sayaka chose to speak up.

"Ryoma, I'm sorry," the pop idol said. "I made a huge deal about talking to you every day, but I haven't been good on following up on that."

Ryoma didn't take his eyes off his drawing as he listened to Sayaka. "It's fine."

"No, it's not. I said I'd be there for you and I wasn't."

"It is fine," Ryoma said, finally looking away from his drawing. "I've told you before I don't mind being alone. Besides, you seemed to have your own problems to deal with."

Sayaka frowned. "Yeah…"

Ryoma eventually placed his pencil down. "Maybe it's time for you take your own advice."

"What do you mean?"

"Being bunkered up in your room all day isn't good for your mind. You might be out now, but I can tell you haven't let go of your guilt."

Sayaka couldn't help but hang her head down. "I just…Every time I feel I've gotten away from what I've done, it comes back to me. I keep thinking about how Makoto must've felt, how I could've gotten every killed, and now? I know now…that it wasn't even Leon's fault I died…It was my own."

Ryoma remained silent as he listened to Sayaka's lament. He could tell by her breathing that she was barely restraining herself from weeping. Before she would finally break out into tears, Ryoma spoke up.

"You know something?" Ryoma asked. "Getting into art has been helping me. Maybe you just need a new hobby."

Ryoma picked up his pencil and held it out towards Sayaka. She lifted her head up slightly, just enough to be able to see Ryoma's outstretched hand and the pencil in his palm. Sayaka still frowned.

"I'm not really a good artist," Sayaka said softly.

Ryoma shrugged. "Everyone starts somewhere, kid."

Sayaka looked back down at the pencil. After taking a moment to think, Sayaka reached out and took it. "OK. I'll give it a shot."

After an hour drawing with Ryoma, Sayaka left the art room with a picture of her own. It was a sketch of her four idol friends on stage. A very amateurish sketch. Their bodies and skirts were simply drawn as triangles, their eyes were way too large, almost imitating an outsider's idea of what anime eyes looked like, and their limps were far too long and noodlelike. It was embarrassingly bad, but it was exactly what Sayaka needed to draw at the time. Something that didn't bring out awe, but something that brought out amusement and laughter from Sayaka. It was funny enough for her to take it with her.

As to where Sayaka was taking it, she wasn't quite sure. Ibuki and Kaede were busy practicing for their concert, Mondo, Sakura, and Chiaki were busy with something, Celeste and Angie's groups weren't ideal, and Miu was the absolute last person she'd ever want to spend time with. As she thought over her options, an idea went off in her mind.

'Rantaro would be nice to hang out with,'Sayaka thought to herself. 'Maybe he'll even have Mikan with him too.'

Making her way from the second floor back down to the dorms, Sayaka approached Rantaro's door and knocked on it. Almost immediately, the door swung open to Rantaro greeting his guest with a smile.

"Ah, Sayaka," Rantaro said. "I wasn't expecting you to come by."

"Yeah, sorry if I'm interrupting anything," Sayaka said. "I'm just having…well, a lazy day today. I need to take my mind off things for a bit. No investigating or anything. Do you mind if I come in?"

Rantaro paused for a moment. "No. Not at all. Come in."

The lime haired boy stepped to the side, allowing Sayaka inside. Sayaka immediately caught sight of Mikan sitting at the desk in the corner of the room. The nurse looked up from her notebook and waved at Sayaka.

"Hello, Mikan," Sayaka waved back to the nurse. "How are you today?"

"I'm doing good," Mikan said, without any stuttering or a hint of nervousness.

Sayaka tilted her head upon hearing Mikan speak with more confidence. "Oh, that's good!"

Rantaro stopped by Sayaka's side to speak. "Yeah, she's been a lot more confident in herself lately."

"It's good someone's getting better in here," Sayaka commented.

Rantaro nodded before facing Sayaka. "So, what brings you here?"

"Well," Sayaka took a deep breath and faced Rantaro, "I just want to do something fun and relaxing for right now, and I figured I could get my nails painted."

Rantaro smiled and shrugged. "Sure thing. Although, I kind of figured you of all people would already be good at painting your own nails."

"I mean, I have some experience. But come on. It's not every day you run into a handsome guy that can do it for you."

Mikan's head perked up from her notes again and glared at Sayaka. Immediately feeling the nurse's eyes piercing right through her back, Sayaka spun around and held her hands up.

"I-I swear I'm just teasing him, Mikan!" Sayaka said with worry in her voice. "I'm not trying to get in the way of anything!"

"I keep telling you, there's nothing going on between us," Rantaro chuckled.

Mikan crossed her arms and muttered to herself. "Not yet…"

"Why don't you go ahead and sit down while I get everything?" Rantaro asked as he moved over to his nightstand.

Sayaka nodded and sat herself down on the edge of the bed and put her picture off to the side as she watched Rantaro scour through his drawers. He seemingly paused his search in the top drawer for about five seconds before shutting it and moving onto the second drawer. Thankfully, the second drawer had exactly what Rantaro needed. He picked up a small jar of pink nail polish and a small brush.

"Now, I know blue is a big color for you, but I also got the feeling that you'd like pink nails more," Rantaro explained.

Sayaka smirked. "You thought right."

Rantaro pulled up a chair and sat himself across from Sayaka, who held her hands out almost as if she was an old queen waiting for a servant to kiss them. Rantaro was gentle when taking a hold of Sayaka and slowly began to spread pink paint across her nails. In order to kill time, as well as to just catch up with the duo, Sayaka started a conversation.

"So, how has your investigation gone?" Sayaka asked. "I mean, just because I stopped doesn't mean you two didn't discover anything, right?"

Mikan shook her head. "No, not really. While Rantaro read through the books and made a lot of notes, the books were covered in black ink."

"Anything relating to dates were blacked out," Rantaro added on as he painted more of Sayaka's nails. "So were most of the names and locations, but I made some guesses with those."

"What do you mean?" Sayaka asked.

"I mean, a part of the book would say, 'The BLANK would be established during this time to undo the damage caused by BLANK," Rantaro explained. "So, I thought back to all the stuff Chiaki had explained about the Future Foundation and how Junko caused an apocalyptic disaster, and I filled in the blanks from there. Still, it wasn't enough. There's still stuff in the Danganronpa book that just doesn't make sense…"

Sayaka could feel "the question" was about to be asked. "So…you don't think-"

"Let's not talk about that right now," Rantaro said just before lightly blowing on Sayaka's nails. "There we go. You should give it about a minute, but your nails are looking pretty good if I'm allowed to brag."

Sayaka examined her nails and, sure enough, they were coated pink paint. No stray marks and no empty spaces. Her nails were just a solid hot pink. The pop idol couldn't help but giggle as she felt she had reverted to her younger days as an idol. Back then, dressing up in cute outfits and putting on make-up was pure fun to Sayaka, instead of the standard routine it would become.

"Thank you, Rantaro," Sayaka said. "Sorry that I interrupted you two."

"Don't worry about it," Rantaro said as he went back to his nightstand and returned his nail paint to the drawer. "You're welcome here anytime you feel like."

"And come by whenever you're hurt or sick," Mikan spoke up. "I want to take my role as nurse more seriously, so I can't let anyone else slack off on their well-being."

Sayaka giggled. "Of course I will, but I don't plan on getting sick anytime soon." Sayaka then carefully took a hold of her drawing, making sure not to get any of her nail paint on it or Rantaro's bed. "I'll see you guys later."

Sayaka, Rantaro and Mikan exchanged waves before the pop idol exited the room.

Following Sayaka's trip to Rantaro's room, she noticed it was around her usual dinner time. So, she made a detour to the cafeteria to cook herself something. Upon entering, Sayaka was surprised to see Kaede stepping out of the kitchen with several bags of chips, crackers, and popcorn. The two musicians stopped in their tracks and smiled at one another.

"Oh! Hello, Sayaka!" Kaede said. "Are you feeling any better?"

"A bit, yeah," Sayaka ran her hand through her hair. "What about you? Did Ibuki put you on snack duty?"

Kaede laughed. "Yeah. She realized none of us ate lunch…or dinner, so she sent me to get snacks for the band."

"Need any help?"

"No," Kaede readjusted her grip on the bags. "I'm ok. Did you want to come with, watch us practice a bit?"

Sayaka shook her head. "No, no. I'm fine. I'm still treating this as my day off. Maybe tomorrow."

"OK then. See you later," Kaede stepped around Sayaka and made her way towards the exit.

While Sayaka took some steps towards the kitchen door, a thought flashed into her mind which caused her to stop in place. She turned back around and spoke out to Kaede. "Hey, wait! Can I ask you something?"

Kaede stopped right in the doorway when Sayaka called out to her. She looked over her shoulder, waiting for Sayaka's question.

After a deep breath, Sayaka asked. "I know that…you didn't technically kill Rantaro, but…you planned it out, and you…lied to someone you cared about…How do you forgive yourself for that?"

Kaede paused for a moment. "Well…I just have to think about how…Shuichi made it out. I may not know where he is or what he's doing, but I know he's not here. So, even though lied to him, I know he got better. I'm sure the same can be said for Makoto."

Sayaka thought back to the photo she had received after the first class trial. Makoto was fine. He was in the middle of a new life with Kyoko. However, that thought didn't make her feel better. That was the life she wanted. She wanted to be free.

"I still need to make things right," Sayaka said.

"You will, Sayaka," Kaede smiled. "Don't beat yourself up over it. We got bigger things to worry about."

With that, Kaede took her leave. Sayaka was left to think over her pain and guilt. Her day off to distract herself from it all had failed. Teasing Chihiro, drawing with Ryoma, talking to Rantaro and Mikan, none of it truly changed how she felt. The growling of her stomach was the only thing that could snap her out of her depressive state. She made her way into the kitchen to fix herself dinner.

"Ring Ding Bing!" Monokuma sounded out in the school's intercom. "It is now 10 pm! As a result, all the water has been shut off and the food will be gone until morning! So, get some sleep, you little twerps!"

Sayaka stepped out of the bathroom in a pink bathroom, using a towel to dry her hair. As she approached her bed, just ready to pass out for the night, she noticed the drawing she made earlier still laid out across her bed. Tossing her towel behind her, she picked up the drawing and made her way over to the nightstand to put it away. Upon opening the top drawer, Sayaka noticed an item she forgot she had, the Love Hotel Key.

"Oh, yeah," Sayaka muttered to herself as she picked up the key. "This thing. I don't even know why I kept this. It's not like I'd use it."

Setting the key back down, Sayaka then placed the picture down next to it and shut the drawer before laying down in her bed. She shut her eyes, ready to just drift off into her dreams, yet the key's existence remained in her mind.

'I wonder if anyone else got one of those keys,'Sayaka thought to herself. 'I mean, most of them don't seem like they'd use it. Teruteru and maybe Leon…Oh, Rantaro got one of those when I got mine. Wonder if he'd ever use it…'

…

"Is something wrong, Ryoma?" Sayaka asked.

"I'm just wondering about something," Ryoma said, still looking at the lock. "Mukuro swallowed the key to this thing yesterday. Only way to get through is with a crowbar to break it."

"Yeah," Sayaka said. "Where do you think they put the crowbar?"

"That's the problem," Ryoma said before turning around and showing Sayaka the lock. It wasn't broken or twisted or had any sign of tampering. It was just open. "Someone didn't use a crowbar."

"What?!" Sayaka gasped. "Did they pick the lock?"

"I don't know. That could possible."

…

"The best chance someone would've had to sneak past her to retrieve the shotgun was when she left her room to catch Kokichi," Rantaro added on.

…

"The first thing I did after I got ready was stepping out of my room to see Mukuro tackle Kokichi," Rantaro explained. "After that, I went to get Mikan."

…

"Wait, Celestia," Rantaro spoke up. "What you just said gave me an idea."

"Oh?" Celestia covered her mouth. "What is it?"

"You said that the killer is choosing their words carefully and Angie, Kokichi, and Mukuro couldn't have set the trap," Rantaro explained. "But what if they still killed Kaito even if they didn't set the trap?"

"What do you mean by that, Rantaro?" Kaede asked. "The person who set up the shotgun trap would have to be the killer."

"But let's say this. What if someone spotted the wire trap beforehand, but instead of stepping over it, they waited for Kaito to arrive before pushing him into the trap."

…

Rantaro frowned as well. "I wish things could've turned out differently."

…

Sayaka frowned. "I…I guess I got wrapped up in figuring out what was up with our memories too, but I have done a little bit character profiling." Sayaka couldn't help but chuckle. "So far, my best guess would be someone like Celeste. She's just so open about how little she cares about other people's lives, and the whole set-up kind of fits with how she killed Taka and Hifumi."

Rantaro scratched his chin for a moment before responding. "OK then. You should keep your focus on her then."

…

Sayaka's eyes shot open as all the pieces finally came together.

Sorry this chapter took so long to make. Honestly, I was kind of losing interest in the scenarios I came up with for this chapter part way through. I also feel like I've rushed Mikan's growing confidence story too quickly as well as just cutting away from Sayaka and Ryoma and how the Kaede scene was just a repeat of stuff we already know, but whatever.

I was curious as to when I should get to the Rantaro revelation. It was either this chapter or the next one, but since this part seemed really...fillery, I figured something important needed to happen now. Next part should be much more interesting to deal with for me, so look forward to that.